1. RASHI METHOD: REFERENCES BRIEF EXPLANATION: Commentary on a verse is provided thru a cross-reference to another verse. The cross references can either provide (1a) further details, (1b) confirm citations, or (1c) clarify word meaning. This examples applies to Rashis Ex08-11b URL Reference: (c) http://www.Rashiyomi.com/rule1323.htm Brief Summary: (Ex08-11b) Pharoh hardened his heart ... AS GOD SAID references Ex07-04 where God said this.

Verse Ex08-11b discussing Pharoh's reaction to the plagues states But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and he listened not unto them; as HaShem had spoken. Rashi notes that the underlined words, he listened not unto them; as HaShem had spoken. references verses Ex07-04 discussing that God will redeem the Jewish people despite the fact that Pharoh will not listen to Moses. Hence the Rashi comment Verse Ex08-11b stating that Pharoh hardened his heart as God said references verse Ex07-04 where God promises Moses that Pharoh will not listen to Moses and God will nevertheless take the Jews out of Egypt.

Text of Target Verse Ex04-18a	Text of Reference Verse Ex02-18, Ex18-01, Nu10-29
But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and listened not unto them; as HaShem had spoken.	But Pharaoh will not listen to you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth my armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
Rashi comments: Verse Ex08-11b stating that Pharoh hardened his heart as God said references verse Ex07-04 where God promises Moses that Pharoh will not listen to Moses and God will nevertheless take the Jews out of Egypt.

The FFF submethod states that words can be named by Form, Feel, and Function.
• Some examples of naming words by Form include (a) the leg of a chair, (b) the handle of a pot, (c) the branch of a family tree, (d) surfing the net or (e) brainstorming Some of these examples illustrate naming objects by form while other examples illustrate naming activities by form.
• A good punchy example distinguishing naming by form vs. function is pentagon-UN. The pentagon is named after the shape and form of the building while the United Nations is named after the function and purpose of the building. Although both these buildings have as a purpose world peace they are named differently.
• Examples of naming by feel/substance are glasses, hardship, ironing-board, plaster etc.

The FFF principle is a special case of the literary techniques of synechdoche-metonomy. These literary principles, universal to all languages, state that items can be named by related items, by parts of those items, or by good examples of those items. For example honey refers to anything sweet since honey is a good example of something sweet. Similarly hot refers to matters of love since the two are related. Todays Rashi can best be understood by applying these principles.

The Hebrew word MithLaQaChath uses the interactive mode (Hitpael) applied to the root lamed-quph-cheth, which means to take. The form of taking is motion from my hand to afar and back to myself. As we shall see in rule #3, grammar the hitpael mode connotes interactivity. But then mithlaqachath, an interactive motion resembling taking would neatly correspond to the motion of an expanding fire lunging forward, but then being quenced in one place and pulling back to another place, expanding, and then when hit by water/hail pulling back again. I have used the English word pulsating to describe the motion of a fire in a rainstorm. Pulsating beautifully describes a fire expanding, being forced to pull back on being hit by hail/water, then expanding, then being hit by hail, then pulling back. In short an interactive motion of taking that is an interactive motion of grabbing and taking in!

Advanced Rashi: This Rashi is continued in Rule #3, grammar and rule #5, contradiction below.

Most people are aware that Hebrew verbs come from three-letter roots. Each root is conjugated in the 8 dimensions of person, gender,plurality, tense, activity, modality, direct-object, and prepositional connective. For example the root Shin Mem Resh means to watch. The conjugations Shin-Mem-Resh-Tauv-Yud and Nun-Shin-Mem-Resh-Nun-Vav mean I watched and we were watched respectively.

The rules for Hebrew grammar are carefully described in many modern books and are well known. Rashi will sometimes comment when a verse is using a rare conjugation of an odd grammatical form.

When presenting grammatical Rashis my favorite reference is the appendix in volume 5 of the Ibn Shoshan dictionary. This very short appendix lists most conjugations.

Verse Ex09-24a discussing the 7th plague, hail, states So there was hail, and fire pulsating amidst the hail, very grievous, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. Rashi translates the Biblical word Mem-Tauv-Lamed-Quph-Cheth-Tauv, MithLaQaChath, as coming from the Biblical root Lamed-Quph-Cheth which means to take, a motion of moving your hand forward and then backward. We have conveniently embedded the Rashi translation in the translation of the verse. The conjugation rule governing this Biblical word may be found by using tables 1 in the Ibn Shoshan dictionary for the interactive mode (HiTPael). In the interactive (Hitpael) mode, this root means pulsating, a to and fro motion that interacts with other forces making it move. To understand this recall there was hail coming down. The hail put out the fires. So The fires moved forward and expanded, but then were hit by the hail which put out the expanded fires, so that the fires appeared to interact with the hail and move back to their original position.

Advanced Rashi: The full understanding of this Rashi requires three Rashi rules: Rule #2, meaning teaches us that take can also mean the motion form of taking namely, a to and fro motion;Rule #3, grammar teaches us that the hitpael means interaction in this case referring to the interaction of the hail and fire; finally Rule #5, contradiction deals with the mechanics of the fact that hail and fire, elements that normally cancel each other out, co-existed to destroy Egypt.

The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Ex09-08. Both verses/verselets discuss the 6th plague, the furnace ashes. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: There were a variety of miracles here. Moses and Aaron took handfuls of ashes but 1st) only Moses threw it upward and 2nd) with only one hand 3rd) Although it was 2 handfuls of ashes it spread over all of Egypt

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Ex09-08	Moses and Aaron Take handfuls of furnace ash Moses Throw it Over Egypt It will be dust (1) (2) (3) (4)	There were a variety of miracles here. Moses and Aaron took handfuls of ashes but 1st) only Moses threw it upward and 2nd) with only one hand 3rd) Although it was 2 handfuls of ashes it spread over all of Egypt
Ex09-08	Moses and Aaron Take handfuls of furnace ash Moses Throw it Over Egypt It will be dust (1) (2) (3) (4)

Advanced Rashi:In the table above we have physically aligned the verse phrases. In fact this is the reason we call this the alignment method since the physical alignment neatly shows the verse differences which drive the various Rashi comments. Corresponding to the 4 alignments shown above we have the following 4 comments:
1. Although Moses and Aaron took handfuls Moses alone threw the two handfuls
2. Although Moses and Aaron each took a handful (so 2 handfuls) Moses alone threw it. Now throwing typically is done with one hand. So Moses' one hand held the 2 handfuls
3. Although there were two handfuls of ash, it sufficed to spread dust over all of Egypt
4. Although they threw ash it became dust.

Rashi only mentions 3 of the miracles. He does not mention that the ash became dust. This is typical of the alignment method - when performing the alignment further differences not all enumerated in Rashi are discovered. Notice also that the eruption of boils (mentioned later on in the verses) from the furnace ash is still an additional miracle.

The table below presents two contradictory verses/verselets. Both verses speak about the 7th plague, the hail. The underlined words highlight the contradiction. One verse/verselet says there were fires (presumably from pre-hail lightning storms), while the other verse/verselet says there was hail. We see the contradiction Which is it? Was there hail or fire? For if there was hail, it would have put out the fires! Rashi simply resolves this using the 2 Stages / 2 Aspects method: First there was a lightning storm which started fires. Second there was a hail storm. The fires pulsated in the hail; the fires went out in one place and quickly pulsated to another place. So the hail did not put out the fires and they - the fire and hail - coexisted. One point here is that no good came from the hail (such as putting out fires).

Summary	Verse / Source	Text of verse / Source
First, there was a pre-hail lightning storm with fires.	Ex09-28a	So there was hail, and fire pulsating amidst the hail, very grievous, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
2nd there was hail. But the fire pulsated to and from the hail so both remained; the hail did not put out the fire.	Ex09-28a	So there was hail, and fire pulsating up amidst the hail, very grievous, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Resolution:	2 Stages / 2 Aspects	First there was a lightning storm which started fires. Second there was a hail storm. The fires pulsated in the hail; the fires went out in one place and quickly pulsated to another place. So the hail did not put out the fires and they - the fire and hail - coexisted. The point here is that no good came from the hail (such as putting out fires).

Advanced Rashi: For the translation mithlaqachat = pulsating see Rule #3, grammar and Rule #2, meaning above.

Rashi literally says Hail is water and water and fire do not coexist. But it was the greatness of the miracle that these two forces - water and fire - coexisted to punish the Egyptians. We have taken this Rashi and supplied operational details. We have explained that the fire came from a pre-hail lightning storm. We have also explained that from the word pulsating we infer that the hail did put out some fires but the fires quickly pulsated to and fro not being totally extinguished but reappearing in another place. Finally we explained the significance of the fire and water working together to punish the Egyptians. Typically a punishment like hail would have some benefits such as putting out fires. But part of the miracle of the 7th plague, hail, was that no good came from the hail.

Certain Biblical paragraphs are stated in a Theme-Development-Theme form. In other words a broad general idea is stated first followed by the development of this broad general theme in specific details. The paragraph-like unit is then closed with a repetition of the broad theme. The Theme-Detail-Theme form creates a unified paragraph. The detailed section of this paragraph is therefore seen as an extension of the general theme sentences. Today's example illustrates this as shown immediately below.

Verse Ex06-10:28 discussing the selection of Moses and Aaron to free the Jewish people from Egypt states
• General: God spoke to Moses and Aaron...commanded them to take the Jews out of Egypt
• Detail: These are the (sub)tribes: Reuven is the eldest... ..Levi had ...Kehath....Kehath has ...Amram...Amram married... who gave birth to Moses and Aaron.....
• General:They are the same Moses and Aaron that God commanded to take take the Jews out of Egypt...they were the people speaking to Pharoh...they were them, Moses and Aaron

Rashi sees the detail clause the genealogies of Moses and Aaron as describing attributes of the general clause, Moses and Aaron were picked to free the Jews. Rashi states: The 3 tribes listed in the genealogies - Reuben, Shimon, and Levi - were the three tribes cursed by Jacob. In fact Shimon and Levi took the law into their own hands (e.g. the destruction of a city where their sister was raped) and were the instigators in selling Joseph to Egypt. They sold Joseph because they did not believe his dreams had prophetic content. Therefore the Bible emphasizes The Moses and Aaron that God asked to save the Jews were descendants of Levy who denied prophecy and caused the whole Egyptian exile!

Advanced Rashi: Three additional points can be made
• The above passage is one of the clearest examples of the Rabbi Ishmael Theme-Development-Theme method. Note the underlines in the above cited passage: They are the same Moses and Aaron .... In other words the Bible goes out of its way to emphasize the point of the Theme-development-Theme.
• I would strengthen Rashi's point by emphasizing that Moses and Aaron were taking the Jews out of Egypt. But the essence of Egypt was an emphasis on class structure. Many of the Biblical prohibitions of slavery refer back to Egypt. The Bible in effect says You were slaves in the Class society of Egypt...so you know what it feels like... don't treat others like class people --- judge people by their merits. It is therefore important when God redeemed the Jews for him to use someone with poor lineage --- Moses/Aaron were chosen despite their descent from someone, Levi, who denied prophecy and helped cause the whole Egyptian exile. By selecting Moses and emhasizing These are the same Moses and Aaron the Bible emphasizes that God wants people judged by merit not by who they descended from. At the critical moment of redemption God did not redeem the Jewish people by the descendants of Joseph who believed in prophecy or by the Judaeans to whom Monarchy was assigned, rather God selected the best person independent of their ancestors. By so doing God was already negating the class philosophy of Egypt.
• In explaining Rashi I have combined the comments of four Rashis: Ex06-26a Ex06-27a Ex06-27b Ex06-14a. Some of these Rashi just note the emphasis in the text these are the same Moses and Aaron while other Rashis note that the three tribes listed were cursed. By combining the Rashis together the Rashi experience becomes holistic. This technique of combining Rashis can be very useful

The climax principle asserts that a sequence of similar phrases should be interpreted climactically even if the words and grammatical constructs used do not directly suggest this. That is the fact of the sequence justifies reading into the Biblical text a climactic interpretation even if no other textual source justifies it. For this reason we consider the climax method a distinct and separate method.

Verse Ex07-28:29 discussing the plague of Frogs is written in a climactic manner as shown. For convenience we have inserted the Rashi comments clarifying the nature of the climax in brackets
• ...the frogs will come to your house [ ]
• your bedroom [ ]
• your bed [ ]
• your slave and national houses [ We would expect the frogs to start in the slave houses and then filter up to the palace but the Bible states that the frogs will start with the palace since Pharoh, not the people, instigated the enslavement of the Jews (Ex01-08. So the climax here is that the frogs started with Pharoh who instigated the enslavement of Jews and finished by entering even the slave houses (who were merely implementing Pharoh's orders)) ]
• your ovens and troughs [ ]
• you [ you yourself, your body ]
• -------------------------------------------
• your nation [ their bodies ]
• your slaves [ their bodies ]

Advanced Rashi: A careful reading of Rashi shows two climaxes here:
• There is the climax that the frogs entered a) house, b) bedroom, c) bed, d) ovens/bread troughs e) you, meaning you yourself, entering the body.
• There is a second climax: a) you b) your nation/slaves. Rashi explains that although we might expect frogs to start in poorly kept slave houses they instead started in the palace because Pharoh, not the people or staff, instigated the enslavement of Jews Ex01-08.

We should emphasize that driving force behind Rashi is the climax. That is Rashi is not being exegetical on the extra word ..in you your nation and slaves. For it is not the extraness of the word in you but rather the position and sequence of the word in you. The position of the word in you coming after house, bedroom, bed, stoves implies in you yourself, in your body. This is in fact the essence of the climax method which infers interpretation based on position.

To appreciate Rashi we should be aware of an Egyptian torture practice. A small animal (frog, rat) was placed on the stomach of a slave. A hot metallic cover was then placed on the animal. The animal, to avoid the heat, would then start eating away from the plate into the body of the slave. The animal would start eating the insides of the slave. Thus the plague of frogs with frogs literally entering the bodies of the Egyptians should be considered a punishment for slave torture practices.